DFA opens consular office in General Santos City

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Jan. 7 (PNA) – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) formally unveiled here its 17th Regional Consular Office to help address the growing list of passport applicants and provide consular services to foreign and local residents of Region XII or Southwestern Mindanao and the neighboring regions.

Region XII covers the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, Cotabato and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Kidapawan, Cotabato and Tacurong.

Mayor Pedro Acharon Jr. said the DFA, which opened its offices at the Gaisano Mall compound here, added the city to its regional operations in compliance with an order issued last August by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

He said the city government earlier offered the site and building for the new DFA Regional Consular Office here.

Under EO 748, which was signed by the President last August 25, the city was selected as among the six cities in the country where a DFA Regional Consular Office would be established.

The President said such move was based on her administration's primary policy "to effect the efficient delivery of basic public services by bringing it closer to the people."

Aside from this city, she also directed the DFA to set up its regional offices in the cities of Bacolod, Butuan, Puerto Princesa, Baguio and Cotabato.

"The creation of the regional consular offices, with the mandate to process and issue passports and to extend various consular services to Filipinos and non-residents alike, is pursuant to Philippine Passport Act of 1996 and Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, as well as Vienna Convention on Consular Relations," the President noted.

The President ordered the allocation of P66 million out of the DFA's budget to fund the establishment of the six new regional consular offices.

With the opening of the DFA regional office here, City Hall media chief Avel Manansala noted that local residents would no longer need to travel to Davao City for their passport needs or wait for the DFA personnel to come to the area for their quarterly mobile passporting services at the city halls of General Santos and Koronadal and at the provincial capitol of Sarangani, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces.